This Bread Can Be A Key Ingredient To Make Soup More Filling

Soup is many things — cozy, soothing, a balm on cold stricken days. Depending on the ingredients, however, it's not always the most filling dish. The steamy broth can definitely warm you up, but it needs a little something extra to satiate hunger. To make your soup a touch heartier, thicken it with rye bread.

Dunking a crusty piece of bread into soup certainly makes the meal even better, but adding the bread inside as it simmers yields a more velvety product. Given its propensity to disintegrate when cooked in broth, bread is the perfect addition to make soup more filling — this is particularly true of rye bread. The baked good is earthy and thick, adding flavorful and textural depth to soup. While it has a dense structure, stale bread is best for thickening soup, so let loaves sit out for some time before using them in your recipe.

To get heartier soup with rye bread, tear up the slice into chunks and add them into your pot or Dutch oven. You can do this before adding the broth, or as the soup simmers. If the rye you're using is on the thicker side, use an immersion blender to smooth away any chucks that don't dissolve in the liquid. However, softened hunks can also add a cozy bite to soup.

Both light and dark rye work as great soup thickeners, but the type of flavor you're after, as well as the texture of the soup, impact which variety you choose. Made with rye flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, and molasses, dark rye bread has a deep, robust flavor that may show up in your soup, depending on how much you use. Due to its richer and nuttier taste, dark rye bread is best for soups that pack a savory punch, like simple rabbit stew or smoky brisket chili. 

Dark rye also has a dense, tightly-packed crumb, so if fresh, it may not dissolve as quickly. Although you can blend the soup for a smoother taste, tearing up the bread and letting it soak can provide a thick, stew-like texture in broth-based soups. Light rye bread, on the other hand, isn't quite as heavy as its dark counterpart. It has a slightly airier crumb that will dissipate more easily into simmering broths and consommé, especially when stale. Light rye bread is still made with the signature flour, but it's also combined with bread flour for a softer taste. 

With the earthy rye and molasses more subdued, light rye bread works best with soups that have a delicate flavor profile. Use light rye bread to thicken a simple three-ingredient potato and sausage soup, or to add a subtle depth to veggie-forward vegan split pea soup.